Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Top 10 Comic Book Artists Working Today Countdown List Extravaganza (According to Me, with All Due Respect to You.) #1

Oooh... What a disappointing match. The US was dominant in the first half and was legitimately the best team for the first 45 minutes. The second half was a disaster. The 2-0 US lead was cut to 2-1 almost immediately after the second half kickoff, and Brazil dominated going forward to win 3-2. Oh well. We still have comics to pick up our spirits. With that I present...

#1. Mike Mignola


If I had to pick only one family of books to read and give up all others, I doubt I'd even have to give it any thought. The Hellboy Universe or "Mignolaverse" (Hellboy, B.P.R.D, Various other one-shots and miniseries) is just that perfect storm of great art, story, and sensibility. Despite Mignola still writing most of the stories in his universe, it's a rare treat to see him pencil a complete book these days (he still draws most covers though). Last year's Hellboy one-shot "In the Chapel of Moloch" was a terse masterpiece prompting me to dig out all my old Mignola-drawn issues to re-marvel at their quality. The moody Medieval landscapes, the Gothic and Romanesque architecture and sculpture, the World's legends and myths intertwining with Hellboy's own growing mythology, the Lovecraftian monsters and occult weirdness intertwine between the frames of the books while Hellboy himself always fires back with a sense of humor and a desperate wisecrack. Mike Mignola; Number One with a bullet on my list. Thanks for reading, Pardners.

5 comments:

shoko said...

yeah mignola! i should have seen it coming. great list, muchacho.

shoko said...

so, what what should we do now?

Deutero Isaiah said...

Nice - I hadn't thought about Mignola either. Definitely a respectable choice.

I've been thinking about a possible 'Top 10 Philosophers Living and Working in the English language (according to me, given what I've read, with all due respect to you)'. This isn't quite something we can all share in as easily as comics, but it might be fun.

We could always do a collaborative list, too - like a Top 9 of something, where we each pick a Top 3 of that same thing, and then we present them in turns - like we each put our #3 pick one day, then our #2 picks, then #1. Maybe Top 3 individual comic or trade that we've read in the last year or so? Whaddya think?

shoko said...

that that sounds like fun fun (what wut? hey! ho!). i look forward to a philosopher's list. i could do a list of top ten songs that made me bawl like a little baby. but it'd be creepily intimate. plus noone would understand about that cher song. a collaborative list would be fun tho. maybe movies. fictional characters. quotes. videogame teabaggings. i'm up for whatever.

TheDoctor said...

I'm certainly disappointed that Steve McNiven did not make the cut! I think his work on Civil War and most recently on the Wolverine: Old Man Logan run were epic! Excellent list regardless.